The best award set of the season is usually the Independent Spirit Awards — that’s the ceremony where filmmakers cut loose, and it’s the set of awards that is most likely to highlight actual achievement, rather than doling out statues to whoever campaigned the hardest for their Oscar.

Today the nominations of for the 2014 Independent Spirit Awards were announced, and they spread recognition out to a wide array of films. 12 Years a Slave scored the most nominations, but this year’s crop of films is diverse and excellent; if you spent the rest of 2013 catching up with everything you’ve yet to see on this list, it would be a great end-of-year movie run. Read More »